first things first.
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org
http://tuxradar.com/content/how-compile-linux-kernel
next up.
- You don't have to Google for drivers like a fucking peasant
This was a bitch ages ago, but setting up a new device on Linux is a breeze usually. The drawback is there is still a lot of hardware that is not supported out of the box, but everything a general web browsing cat would use is definitely supported. Even if support for the devices doesn't exist, you can bet money on some guy out there writing a hack method and guide to follow.
I'll just go out and say it. Linux is simple compared to Windows.
these things, they made me laugh. "'you just have to type 'yum update nvidia' (or apt get or whatever your distro decided) unless you cant, then you have to do the opposite of what my point was." which, btw if you have the latest and greatest hardware you can bet you don't get a driver for a month. i had a $200 sound card, i had to cheat and get half support by force installing incorrect sound drivers for devices that had the same number of outputs and the same sound chip. it worked eventually... kind of...
Maybe in 2004.
What kind of sound card was it? That sounds weird.
Linux and sound was kinda a huge bitch until Pulseaudio came around. That created it's own problems, but stuff that supports it works just fine. Never had problems with it like OSS and ALSA.
I will say ATI support definitely sucks dick, but NVIDIA works great even with the open source drivers. Intel video works completely fine, too.
It's only installing the proprietary drivers that takes work. And, depending on the distro, that could be some yum install bullshit, like Ubuntu where for the past two-three years, there is a tool that allows you to install proprietary drivers for hardware it supports.
http://cleansofts.org/view/update-notifier.html << have yet to try it but i assume they have the normal programs covered.
for Vista you need Administrator rights
run in background
scan selected stand-alone software
Please explain to me (a person who is fairly computer competent and has used Linux as my only OS for several months) what exactly you can do with Linux that you cant do on windows.
What you call an operating system, I call
You have like 10 different options for a decent desktop GUI and if you feel like exploring some crazy shit, you could try other people's one man, two man swings at a window manager.
I have a bunch of keyboard shortcuts. I use the Windows key for most of them.
Super Key - N, Inverts a Windows colors. Useful for turning a black window white and vice versa. Whatever feels better on eyes. Never seen a way to do this in Windows.
Super Key - M, inverts the entire screen. If you use magnifying glass, you can invert the screen. While using magnifying glass.
Super Key - Mouse Scroll changes the transparency of a window. So, I can watch videos through my web browser. You can do this on Windows if you love installing crap.
I can set a window to stay on top of all other windows no matter what. Can't do this with vanilla Windows. I'm sure if you install crap you can do this.
I can shade a window, set it on top, and unshade the window when my mouse is over it to read what's on it.
There is a terminal-based command for literally everything. Like, I can pipe my webcam from SSH into a media player of my choice. Record sounds and email them somewhere on a regular basis.
SSH is literally the standard for remote management and is supported by everything that matters that deals with file transferring and terminal programs.
But man, I can list a bunch of shit, but it's just going to be shit I like about it. It's just what I'm comfortable with.
Or maybe I'm an edgy fucktard.